The tragedy of children suffering lifelong illnesses from consanguineous marriages.
(Baonghean) - After weddings in the village, numerous children are born. When the couples discover that their children are "not normal," they take them to the hospital and find out that it is the consequence of consanguineous marriage.
The hospital is home.
At the end of May, having just returned from working in the fields, Ms. Lo Thi H. (25 years old, Ngoc Lam commune, Thanh Chuong district) had to rush to catch a bus and travel nearly 100 km to Vinh City to take care of her child. Her 8-year-old son has been receiving treatment for months at the Gastroenterology - Hematology Department (Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital) for congenital hemolytic anemia, also known as Thalassemia. This is a disease that often appears in children born from consanguineous marriages.
Carrying a thermos of cold porridge after a long journey, upon entering the hospital room, Ms. H. carefully fed her mentally disabled son spoonful by spoonful. Despite his age, her son still doesn't know how to read or write, and Ms. H. hasn't sent him to school. "He's this big now, but his mind is still like a three-year-old. He can't go to school with his friends," Ms. H. said sadly.
 |
| The Dan Lai ethnic minority village in Mon Son commune, where many cases of consanguineous marriage occur. Photo: Tien Hung |
Seeing his wife arrive, her husband, Lo Van Th. (26 years old), packed his clothes into a backpack and headed back to his hometown. The couple had no jobs; their only source of income was a small plot of land. With harvest season approaching, Mrs. H. and her husband had to take turns going to the hospital to care for their child. “Today my wife is on duty at the hospital, tomorrow my husband is, and so on – I don’t know how long this will continue,” Mr. Th. said. Since their son was hospitalized, all their valuable possessions have gradually disappeared. Afraid to eat out because of the cost, they usually cook meals at home and bring them to the hospital. Family meals right in the hospital courtyard have therefore become a familiar routine for Mrs. H.
"Today the wife is on duty at the hospital, tomorrow the husband is, and so on, who knows how long this will continue."
However, Mrs. H. and her husband still have a bigger worry. Recently, their 6-year-old daughter has also shown signs of "abnormality" similar to her brother. "We'll probably take her to the doctor after the harvest season is over. It's truly tragic," Mrs. H. said, adding that she only learned about the disease after taking her daughter to the hospital and hearing what the doctor said. And this is also the first time the couple has learned that their son's illness is due to their shared bloodline.
Originally from the Bản Vẽ lake area, Ms. H. dropped out of school before she even finished reading and writing to follow her mother to the fields. Not long after, like other girls her age, Ms. H. married a man from the same village. Interestingly, they shared a common great-grandfather. "We thought that since it was three generations ago, we could get married, it wouldn't matter. Because up here, there are many cases where the son of another marries the daughter of another," the woman with a weathered face said.
We thought that since three generations had passed, we could get married, and it wouldn't be a problem. Because up here, there are many cases where the son of another man marries the daughter of another man.
Because of that mindset, when their children were born one after another with abnormalities, the couple didn't consider it a consequence of consanguineous marriage. It wasn't until their son grew older and became increasingly abnormal compared to his peers that they took him to Vinh City for examination.
Sharing a hospital room with Ms. H. is the couple Ms. Xeo Thi T. (22 years old, Bao Thang commune, Ky Son district). Five years ago, Ms. T. married her cousin because her parents didn't want her to marry someone far away. Later, their two children also suffered from thalassemia, a congenital blood disorder, and were constantly ill.
Lifelong treatment
According to Dr. Tran Van Cuong, Deputy Director of Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital, in the Gastroenterology - Hematology Department, consanguineous marriages allow recessive disease genes from both husband and wife to combine, resulting in children with deformities or genetic diseases such as color blindness, albinism, ichthyosis, mental disorders, and especially thalassemia.
 |
| Due to their isolated location in the forest, consanguineous marriages are common in Bung village, Mon Son commune, Con Cuong district. (Photo: Archival image) |
Thalassemia is a type of anemia caused by hemolysis. Currently, there is no cure for the disease; treatment is mainly symptomatic and lifelong. Therefore, thalassemia patients are a burden on their families and society. The incidence of thalassemia is often very high in mountainous regions and among ethnic minorities due to the high rate of consanguineous marriage in these areas, thus increasing the genetic risk. Since it is a hereditary disease, if both parents carry the same gene, their child has a 50% chance of being affected and a 25% chance of having a severe form of the disease.
Every physical characteristic is determined by genes. Some genes are disease-causing genes that remember a particular trait and pass it on to subsequent generations. Each person has approximately 500,000-600,000 genes, some of which may cause disease but not yet manifest it. These are recessive disease-causing genes, which persist in certain individuals within a family lineage from generation to generation. If a marriage is conducted with someone from a different family line, the risk of disease manifestation is usually low. Conversely, marriages between people of the same family create favorable conditions for similar recessive disease-causing genes to combine, potentially leading to disease manifestation. The consequence is the birth of children with diseases or genetic deformities.
Marriage between close relatives not only fails to preserve the wealth of clans and maintain and develop the nation, but also leads to racial degeneration and a decrease in the population of the ethnic group due to a higher mortality rate.
"The consequences of consanguineous marriage include children being more prone to birth defects/genetic diseases; stunted growth in height/weight; and intellectual disability. In the long term, it can even affect the height/weight of the entire family lineage; and impact national morality/culture."
According to reports from the three districts of Kỳ Sơn, Tương Dương, and Con Cuông, from 2015 to 2018, there were a total of 713 cases of child marriage in these three localities; including 192 cases of girls under 16 years old who were married. There were also over 30 cases of consanguineous marriage. However, this figure does not accurately reflect the reality at the grassroots level, as the investigation has not been conducted systematically, and people also tend to want to keep it secret. Some localities have a high number of cases of consanguineous marriage, such as the Đan Lai villages in Con Cuông district.
